noob q

if i wanted to have scorpion green as my main color, would it be wise to start from like dark angels and work up to it?

would i highlight with a brighter green?

etc. ive been painting for years, but never to any skill near whats in teh books and on the sites. jw what im doing wrong. it probably takes me 15 min a troop, and idk how long these amazing models actually are supposed to take.

if i wanted to have scorpion green as my main color, would it be wise to start from like dark angels and work up to it?

would i highlight with a brighter green?

etc. ive been painting for years, but never to any skill near whats in teh books and on the sites. jw what im doing wrong. it probably takes me 15 min a troop, and idk how long these amazing models actually are supposed to take.

love, garrito. ty.

Hmm... I'm a little confused as to your question.

The short answer is "it depends." Yes, starting with a darker green is a good idea. Dark Angels Green is good. Snot Green is a good "mid range" color. All layering involves starting with a (usually) dark coat, then after it dries, going over it with a lighter coat, but over a smaller area so a tiny bit of the darker area remains exposed. Each layer is over a smaller and smaller area, leading up to your lightest color.

If you want scorpion green to be the "main" color, i.e., the color everyone thinks of when they see your paint job, you'll need a slightly darker color (say, snot green or DA green), Scorpion Green (SG, to keep it simpler), and probably some white. Start with your "darker" green color. Next, do the "main" coat with SG, and finally, do some highlights with SG mixed with some white.

Note that this is a "quick and dirty" way to do it. You'll find that if you use too dark a color (say, DA green) and too much white in your highlights, the model will look "striped," like some kind of mutated green zebra. This is Bad(TM). To prevent this, consider "mid-range" coloring. If, for example, you want to use, say, an undercoat of DA green and a "main" color of SG, make sure that, in between those two layers, do a coat of DA green and SG mixed together. If you really want to do it well, start with DA green, then do, say, a 3:1 mix of DA green/SG, then another layer with a 2:1 mix, then a 1:1 mix, then go the opposite way, with say a 1:2 DA green/SG mix, then a 1:3, then just straight SG. Afterward, do highlights with a little white mixed into the SG, then a little more, etc.

Now, you raise a good point: If you're an IG player and have 50 models in two troops choices alone, you'll go stark-raving batty trying to paint all those models that extensively. For those players, it's often a good idea to adopt a simple approach, without a lot of "mid-range" layers as I describe above, though that in-depth technique might be useful for, say, your sargeant, HQ character, etc.

If you don't have the patience for all this, washes might be the way to go. There's a GW wash that's green, but I can't recall its name right now. You'll need that, SG, and white. Start with a first coat of SG, then do the wash (assuming you know how) along the areas that need shading. Let it dry. Any area that's a little too dark, touch up with SG. Finally, mix white in gradually to the SG, using it to highlight along the edges. That is much faster, and may (depending on how well you do it) be a better way to go.

My advice: Take some models/bits/pieces of sprue that you don't care about, and test multiple techniques. That's the best way to figure out what works and looks the best for you.

Good luck, and post pics!

Last edited by Canew; August 18th, 2008 at 15:24.

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